I had the fright of my life

I can´t believe what just happened, not 20 minutes ago a man called my father to tell him that they had kidnapped my sister and were going to kill her if he didn`t pay $20000, in the background he could hear a woman crying and beging for her life. My dad almost fainted right there, he started shouting and begging not to hurt her... thats when my husband and I (we all work together in the same clinic) listened to the commotion, so while my husband try to calm my father I tried to get in touch with my sister, is not easy cause she is in a little town in the Andes for one year doing her medical rural service that only has electricity and running water for a couple of hours a day, thank God she has a satellite phone.

She answered, she was perfectly fine (she was cooking dinner) and had no idea what was going on.

We are all shaking, we dont know what just happened, I think is a new theft mode, they were ready to accept what dad had in that very moment (no even close to $20000), they gave him a womans name and ask him to send the money through Western Union.

We called the police, not that we expect them to find anything, and know we are worried, why they chose my dad? Did they know that my sister is not easily contacted? that she is away?

I know my country is not the safest in the world but this is awful, I feel very unsafe at the moment.

Still, the asshole criminals that pulled this stunt need to be hit with the most severe penalty that applies. The ideas that people come up with to perpetrate crimes in this day in age boggles the mind .

The police just left, they took all the data we could give them, but I dont believe it´ll do any good , the phone that called was a cel that´s off.
We are driving dad home and spending the night at my parents house, he has heart issues so we rather stay there until he feels better (he is still shaken even after talking to my sister, he says that the woman on the phone crying sounded like her, begging for her life)

Citlali - I can't even imagine the horror - I would be a puddle of tears right now.

You were smart to call the police. If it's any comfort, from what I've read about these types of scams, the perpetrators are generally looking for easy marks. They didn't find one in your father, so they will move on to their next attempted victim. It's probably unlikely that they would try to hit up your family again.

I'm so glad that you're sister is really safe, and that you were able to ascertain her safety while your dad was still on the phone, so the amount of panic could be minimized. But I can't even imagine the shock of that call and the cruelty it takes to come up with that fecked up of a scam

About 15 years ago some asshat thought it would be hilarious to call my grandparents in the middle of the night and tell them that my uncle had been arrested for raping a woman. My uncle is mildly autistic - he is very high functioning, has always held a job, had travelled around the country by himself. Socially, he's a little awkward, but he has never caused any problems. My poor grandparents were in the 80s at the time and they were extremely upset by it. This wasn't even any ruse to get $$$, it was just assholery

I'm so glad that you're sister is really safe, and that you were able to ascertain her safety while your dad was still on the phone, so the amount of panic could be minimized. But I can't even imagine the shock of that call and the cruelty it takes to come up with that fecked up of a scam

About 15 years ago some asshat thought it would be hilarious to call my grandparents in the middle of the night and tell them that my uncle had been arrested for raping a woman. My uncle is mildly autistic - he is very high functioning, lives independently (with a roommate), has always held a job, had travelled around the country by himself. Socially, he's a little awkward, but he has never caused any problems. My poor grandparents were in the 80s at the time and they were extremely upset by it. This wasn't even any ruse to get $$$, it was just assholery

The police just left, they took all the data we could give them, but I dont believe it´ll do any good , the phone that called was a cel that´s off.
We are driving dad home and spending the night at my parents house, he has heart issues so we rather stay there until he feels better (he is still shaken even after talking to my sister, he says that the woman on the phone crying sounded like her, begging for her life)

I cant believe how evil some people can be

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I'm so glad your sister is safe and okay. I'm also glad you contacted the police. There's a lot of thugs and rip-off artists that try to take advantage of the elderly. They have ways of finding out who's elderly and then make the call scams to rip them off. It hasn't happened to my family but I do know someone that received a scam call. He realized what was going on, hung up the phone and called the police. I'm glad you're spending the night at your parents house. Hug!

(((Citlali & family))) I have goose bumps just reading this! The cruelty is just astounding. Thank goodness your sister is okay. Thank goodness you were with your Dad and called your sister and were able to speak with her. Wonderful that you and your husband are staying with your parents tonight. Give your family big hugs.

Just this evening on the news they were talking about being careful what you post via social media. People use information like the fact that you going to be away and in a hard-to-contact situation to try to scam your family out of money. An example they mentioned was to contact the family indicating that you were in jail/injured/etc. and asking for money to assist you.

Your situation is an extreme example - glad it turned out OK for everyone.

The police just left, they took all the data we could give them, but I dont believe it´ll do any good , the phone that called was a cel that´s off.
We are driving dad home and spending the night at my parents house, he has heart issues so we rather stay there until he feels better (he is still shaken even after talking to my sister, he says that the woman on the phone crying sounded like her, begging for her life)

I cant believe how evil some people can be

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Citlali, people can be very evil. If it's any consolation to your Dad, like BittyBug I've heard of these type of scams as well and the woman "screaming" in the background was in on it and obviously a very good actress; not in any real danger at all. What scum these people are.

I'm glad it turned out to be a hoax and your sister is okay even though your family is shaken up. Terrible.

So scary! I worked at the deaf relay and would have to often relay scam calls. It was awful because I could not step in and warn the caller as we had to say only what was typed to us. So glad your sister is OK!

How did they know that your father had a daughter? What happens if he didn't? It would be really obvious that it was a hoax.

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I imagine they take a shot, if there is no daughter or the daughter is known safe, they just hang up. We, when we answer phones, also give information without thinking. I had a situation (26 years ago) where I was getting very scary sexual phone calls. I answered the phone and the person said guess who. It sounded like this guy I hadn't seen in years (who had a very distinct voice) and I said - Ken how are you. Well the guy became Ken and he chatted as Ken for a bit. I stupidly said I'd just had a baby and that I was not working at the time. When he started saying horrible things, I knew it wasn't Ken, but I unwittingly gave him information. This was before caller ID, so if I was home I answered the phone. Because I told him I wasn't working he called during the day, when my husband wasn't home. The police said they couldn't do anything, because I had not been threatened - yeah threats of rape aren't threatening . Well one day he called and my husband was unexpectedly home, he never called again. It just shows that you have to be very careful what you say and be sure you're talking to who you think you are.

Hi, thanks you all for your good thoughts; my dad is better, we are all at work, last night he had a rise in his blood pressure but this mornig is normal (for him).

We are used to tell everyone (patients, coworkers, etc) about my sister and her work, how is she doing and the problems she has living in extremely poor conditions; my dad is really proud of her so he talks about her all the time, so it doesn`t surprise me that someone could found out that she is not in Lima; sometimes you just talk about yourself or your family not realizing just how much are you saying or what information are you giving.

Thank God she rented a satellite phone, last night we all talked and are better now.